TIL: Cairo’s “Garbage People” Farm Their City's Trash

For the Zabaleen, which literally translates to “garbage people,” trash is the foundation of life. Each day they travel throughout Cairo, Egypt, collecting the city’s waste and hauling it back to their neighborhoods to sort. Banana peels and half-eaten sandwiches are thrown to the animals while inorganic materials are cleaned, shredded, and shipped off to be reused. This all contributes to a recycling rate of 85 percent, making the Zabaleen one of the world’s most sustainable societies.

In this episode of Today I Learned, National Geographic Emerging Explorer Thomas Taha Rassam Culhane introduces this industrious community and explains how they’ve built a way of life around Cairo’s garbage.

TODAY I LEARNED: CAIRO’S “GARBAGE PEOPLE” DON’T BELIEVE IN GARBAGEZabaleen means the “garbage people,” but the funny thing is that they don’t believe there’s such thing as garbage, so they believe that they are the recyclers.They moved in from the countryside when they were displaced by agroindustry. And they realized that if they couldn’t do their farming on their land they could farm the city.

THEY COLLECT AROUND 9,000 TONS OF TRASH A DAY, WHICH IS ABOUT THE WEIGHT OF THE EIFFEL TOWER. The women and little girls separate out the organics and feed it to the animals. The plastic, the glass, and the metal go to the men to be shredded and sold primarily to the Chinese.

COMPANIES AROUND THE WORLD USE THE MATERIALS TO MAKE NEW PRODUCTS. 85% of Cairo’s garbage is recycled by them.

THIS IS THE HIGHEST RECYCLING RATE IN THE WORLDThe only downside is they don’t have the investment capital and the political permission to really make their place efficiently clean.

THE ZABALEEN PROVIDE THIS SERVICE AT ALMOST NO COST, BUT THEY’RE TRYING TO CHANGE THISLike a good prospector or entrepreneur they see value in things that other people can’t see the value in, and they’re very proud of it.

TIL: Cairo’s “Garbage People” Farm Their City's Trash

For the Zabaleen, which literally translates to “garbage people,” trash is the foundation of life. Each day they travel throughout Cairo, Egypt, collecting the city’s waste and hauling it back to their neighborhoods to sort. Banana peels and half-eaten sandwiches are thrown to the animals while inorganic materials are cleaned, shredded, and shipped off to be reused. This all contributes to a recycling rate of 85 percent, making the Zabaleen one of the world’s most sustainable societies.

In this episode of Today I Learned, National Geographic Emerging Explorer Thomas Taha Rassam Culhane introduces this industrious community and explains how they’ve built a way of life around Cairo’s garbage.